Impact of SBAR Communication Training on Medication Error Reduction Among Staff Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Medication errors represent a significant issue of the healthcare environment and are commonly provoked by the lack of the effective communication within the clinical handovers. SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) is a model communication tool intended to enhance patient safety and transfer of information. The purpose of this study was to measure how SBAR communication training can reduce the number of medication errors among staff nurses. Methodology: A quasi-experimental one group pre-test and posttest study design were used. There were 34 medical and surgical inpatient unit staff nurses. A structured checklist was used to collect pre-intervention medication error data in four weeks. An organized SBAR communication training was accomplished in two parts, demonstrations and role-play scenarios. Another four weeks were taken as post-intervention data of medication error. Paired sample t-tests were used to analyze the data, and the level of significant was p < 0.05. Findings: The study sample consisted of 20 percent BSN, 60 percent RN, and 20 percent post-RN nurses; 45 percent men and 55 percent women, and a mean age of 28.6 years and a standard deviation of 4.2 years. The overall median score on medication errors reduced considerably between 5.82 US = 1.94 before intervention to 2.97 US = 1.41 after the intervention (t = 8.46, p = 0.001). All categories such as wrong dose, wrong time, documentation errors, wrong route and wrong patient recorded reductions. Conclusion: SBAR communication training proved to be an effective way to decrease medication errors among staff nurses through enhancing the quality of handover and clarity in communication. It is advised to implement SBAR in the everyday practice and education of nurses to make health treatments safer and foster the culture of effective communication in the clinical environment.